Some are reporting that the front-facing camera on the iPhone XS is making their faces appear strikingly smoother, with some claiming the photos look similar to edits applied in beauty apps like FaceTune.

The mysterious effect is also present in the iPhone XS Max, which has exactly the same front-facing camera as the iPhone XS.

So far, it's not completely clear what's behind the smoothing effect.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

But it's possible that it's a result of the iPhone XS and XS Max's upgraded camera, which includes noise-reducing features.

This removes some of the visual distortion present in high-resolution photos, such as graininess, by smoothing out certain elements in the photo, especially in darker conditions.

However, in doing so, some users say it produces an undesirable effect that leaves their face looking like a 'porcelain doll or plastic figurine,' said tech Youtuber Lewis Hilsenteger, who posted a video to his channel 'Unbox Therapy' describing the effect.

Hilsenteger even went as far as labeling it 'beautygate.'

'At first I was like, let me get to the bottom of this. This is probably some kind of processing thing that I can turn off,' Hilsenteger explained.

'I can just dive into the menus, like on other phones that have beauty modes. Like on Samsung, or Huawei, and so on. Maybe I can just toggle that down to zero.

'But of course there's no mention of beauty mode because Apple never admitted to doing any kind of beauty mode,' he added.

There's no evidence that Apple included any kind of beauty mode in the iPhone XS and XS Max selfie cameras, suggesting that it's more likely a result of the noise reduction features.

That said, typically noise reduction is limited to environments where there isn't as much light.